The present invention relates to the development of a disease resistant and high yielding variety of opium poppy plant (Papaver somniferum L. 2n=22) christened as xe2x80x98Rakshitxe2x80x99. More particularly, the invention relates to the development of a high seed and straw yielding (concentrated poppy straw) variety of opium poppy by hybridizing the highly resistant sources in the germplasm with high yielding lines/genotypes followed by repeated selection and evaluation for the said characters for six years under natural and artificial epiphytotic conditions. The resultant variety is highly resistant to the most destructive disease, downy mildew caused by Peronospora arborescens (Berk) de Barry and moderately resistant to both damping off caused by Pythium dissotocum Drechsler and collar rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn. The variety being highly self pollinated is distinct, uniform and stable and suitable for commercial cultivation.
Opium poppy is commercially cultivated in a large number of countries under strict vigilance. International Narcotic Control Board (INCB) Vienna, regulates the opium poppy cultivation in the world. The latex obtained by the incision of unripe capsules is known as opium which is the source of several pharmacologically important alkaloids. Morphine, codeine, thebaine, narcotine and papaverine are the most important alkaloids produced by the plant and are exploited by the pharmaceutical industry as analgesics, antitussive and antispasmodic. The total world area of illicit cultivation of poppy for opium production was about 37000-56000 ha from 1989-1993 according to the INCB, Vienna. Eight to ten thousand tones of opium is produced in India yearly (Bryant, R J, Chemistry and Industry. 7:146-153,1988). This amount of opium covers about half of the world""s annual morphine demand. India remains the only country in which the cultivation of opium poppy for gum is still legal. However, the importance of poppy straw has been increasing continuously and world area of poppy cultivation for purposes other than opium production was as large as 25,000-40,000 ha in the early 1990s which increased to 80,000 ha in 1994. This means that the cultivation of poppy for straw is 2-3 times more than that of the area used for licit opium production. Poppy straw and straw concentrate are more important than opium in the production of morphine. More than 50% of the world""s morphine is now manufactured from these raw materials. However, the single method of using dry capsules for direct extraction is practiced only in some central European countries. The United Kingdom is the largest producer of morphine from straw concentrate. Australia produced 36,082 kg. of morphine from concentrate in 1993 (INCB,1993). Countries like USA, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Netherlands and Italy import straw concentrate for morphine extraction. Turkey has its own poppy cultivation industry.
Poppy seeds are rich in protein and minerals and are widely used in the food industry. These are also considered to have aphrodisiac and constipating properties (Nerglz and Otles, J. Sci. Food Agr. 66:117, 1994). Anticarcinogenic properties have also been reported in the poppy seeds (Aruna, Food Chem. Toxicol. 30: 11, 1992; Berger, Berger""s Medicinal Chemistry, Part II, A. Willey Interscience Publication, 1140, 1979). The seeds contain a high proportion of edible vegetable oil which is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, particularly oleic acid and linoleic acid (Wealth of Indiaxe2x80x94Raw materials vol. 7: 234, 246, 1966). Linolinic acid tends to lower down the blood cholesterol in human beings (cf. Singh et al, Indian J. Agric. Sci. 60: 358, 1990). The biological value if poppy seed oil was found in similar to those of sunflower oil and olive and was considered to be promising for human consumption (Beare et al Nutrition and Metabolism, 23:335-346, 1979). Several other uses of poppy seed and oil have been reported by Teteyl (Tetely, Hort. Rev., 19: 373, 1997).
Opium poppy is attacked by many diseases like downy mildew, damping off, capsule rot, collar rot, stem rot, mosaic etc. which cause huge damage to seed and latex yield. Downy mildew caused by Peronospora arborescens is the most destructive and wide spread disease which spreads very rapidly under low temperature and high humidity conditions leading to severe damage to the crop (Kothari and Prasad, Indian Phytopath. 23: 6740-688,1978). Damping off caused by Pythium dissotocum occurs most frequently during misty weather when high moisture regime prevails for 7-10 days during the month of January. The disease spreads rapidly and kills large population of the young seedlings in severely infected fields within 15-20 days of its appearance(Alam et al, 1995, Indian Phytopathology 49: 94-97). The collar rot disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani appears on young plants of 10-12 fully expanded leaf stage . The infection initally appears as dark brown necrotic lesions at the collar region (a joint between the stem and root) which later turns black resulting in premature death of the infected plants.
All existing varieties of opium poppy at CIMAP (Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants), Lucknow, India are highly susceptible to all these diseases and till now no disease resistant and high yielding genotype is available. Hence, there is a strong and pronounced need for diseasexe2x80x94resistant poppy varieties. Keeping this objective in view, planned experiments were carried out at CIMAP, Lucknow for developing disease resistant genotypes with high yield potential. The available germplasms were screened for disease resistance and highly resistant sources were identified against all the devastating diseases of opium poppy. These resistant sources were then hybridized systematically with high yielding genotypes followed by repeated selection for the desirable characters in the advanced generations under natural as well as artificial epiphytotic conditions.
The main object of the invention is to develop poppy varieties resistant to common destructive diseases like downy mildew, damping off, capsule rot, collar rot, stem rot, mosaic etc.
Another object is to develop poppy varieties having high straw and seed yielding capacity.
Yet another object is to provide poppy plants having high morphine content in the straw.
Still another object is to develop poppy plants capable of growing in natural and epiphytotic conditions.
In accordance with the above and other objectives, the invention provides a novel variety of poppy plant, christened as xe2x80x98Rakshitxe2x80x99, said variety being resistant to common disease like downy mildew damping off, capsule rot, collar rot, stem rot, etc. The said variety xe2x80x98Rakshitxe2x80x99 has high straw and seed yielding capacity as compared to conventional poppy varieties. The straw of the variety is also rich in morphine content.
Accordingly, the invention provides a novel disease resistant variety of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) called Rakshit. This variety has yielding capacity and has high speed and straw with high morphine content in the poppy straw. The seeds of the Rakshit plant are deposited at National Gene Bank of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants at Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, India. The Accession Number is CIMAP/IPMC 99/T-7 (CIMAP 0518). The seeds of this Rakshit plant were also deposited at National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria Limited (NCIMB), 23 St. Macher Drive, Aberdeen, United Kingdom on Sep. 12, 2002. The Accession No. is NCPAT17699 (NCIMB 41148).
Accordingly, the present invention provides a disease resistant and high yielding variety Rakshit of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) having the following morphological/agronomic features.
(RHSxe2x80x94Royal Horticulture society, London, UK.)
The invention further provides a disease resistant and high yielding variety poppy called xe2x80x98Rakshitxe2x80x99exhibiting reactions to various diseases as under:
The invention further provides a disease resistant and high yielding variety Rakshit of opium poppy with the following chemical features in the concentrated poppy straw (cps).
In an embodiment of the invention the parental material of the said variety Rakshit comprised of IS-22 as the female parent and N-3 as male parent wherein IS-22 was selected on the basis of seed yield and good plant type but was susceptible to downy mildew (DM) and damping off and N-3 was selected on the basis of highly resistant DM reactions.
In another embodiment 0-9 scale disease rating was used for scoring downy mildew reactions under epiphytotic as well as natural field conditions wherein 0-3 was considered resistant (0=no visible disease reactions; 3=less than 20% of the lower leaves covered with disease reactions), 3.1 to 5.0 as tolerant (3.1=more than 20% disease reactions on lower leaves; 5.0=less than 50% disease reactions on lower leaves), 5.1-7.0 as susceptible (5.1=more than 50% disease reactions on all the leaves and stem; 7.0=less than 75% disease reactions on all the leaves and stem) 7.1 to 9.0 as highly susceptible (7.0=more than 75% disease reactions; 9.0=premature death of the infected plant).
In another embodiment of the invention 0-4 scale was used for damping off disease reactions under epiphytotic conditions in the glasshouse wherein 0-1 was considered as resistant (0=no visible reaction, 1=very few minute necrotic lesions of limited growth on the roots, no chlorosis). 1.1-2.0 as tolerant (few necrotic lesions on the roots with chlorotic symptoms only on the lower leaves). 2.1-3.0 as susceptible (many dark brown necrotic lesions on the roots with distinctly visible chlorotic symptoms). 3.1-4.0 as highly susceptible (entire root system with dark brown necrotic and rotting symptoms leading to sudden death of infected seedlings.)
In another embodiment of the invention 0-4 scale disease rating was used for scoring collar rot disease reactions under epiphytotic conditions in the glass house wherein 0-1 was considered resistant (0=no visible reaction; 1=infection restricted up to 1 cm length on the collar region), 1.1-2.0 as tolerant (1.1=infection more than 1 cm length on the collar region, 2.0=infection starts spreading in the root and shoot), 2.1-3.0 as susceptible (2.1=infection spreads downwards (root) and upwards (stem) and yellowing of lower leaves, 3.0=pronounced rotting symptoms start appearing at the collar region as well as on the stem of infected plants.), 3.1-4.0 as highly susceptible (3.1=dark brown rotting become more prominent, 4.0=collar region and stem become pulpy resulting into the toppling of infected plants).
The invention further provides a method for development of disease resistant and high yielding variety of poppy called xe2x80x98Rakshitxe2x80x99 said method comprising the steps of:
a) selecting parental lines wherein one of the parental line is high yielding, but susceptible and another being highly resistant to downy mildew disease,
(b) hybridizing the high yielding genotypes with resistant genotypes in all possible combinations,
(c) raising of the F2 generations of all the cross combinations and then selfing only the resistant plants in the F2 progenies to raise the F3 seeds.
(d) selection of the highly resistant plants in the F3 generation showing high seed and straw yield.
(e) initial evaluation of 286 F4 plant progenies in row trial and selection of seven (T-3, T-7, T-16, T-20-16, T-20-17, T-79 and T-80) promising plant progenies on the basis of distinctiveness, uniformity, disease rating, seed and straw yield.
(f) screening of the selected plants within the said seven plant progenies for damping off, collar rot and downy mildew under epiphytotic conditions in the glasshouse and under natural conditions in the field.
(g) purification of the selected lines showing high to moderate resistance for all the three diseases in the advanced generation (F5) by selfing only the highly resistant and high seed/straw yielding plants.
(h) bench scale evaluation of the purified lines (T-7,T-20-16, T-20-16, T-79 and T-80) against the released variety Shyama as check (RBD 8 m2 plots, 3 replications, rxc3x97r=50 cm)
(i) Pilot scale evaluation of the elite lines (T-7,T-20-16andT-20-17) against high yielding released varieties (Vivek, Sanchita, Shyama, Shubhra, Jawahar-16) for two years for the yield and quality traits.
In an embodiment, the parental materials consisting of high yielding but susceptible genotypes (IS-22, SPS-49, Thailand, Shweta broad, Shyama, Jawahar-16) and the highly resistant sources for the most destructive disease downy mildew (N-3, I-14, and SPS-20) were screened from the germplasm under strict epiphytotic conditions.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the invention further provides a disease resistant and high yielding variety of poppy called xe2x80x9cRakshitxe2x80x9d whose seeds were deposited at National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria Limited (NCIMB), 23, St. Macher Drive, Aberdeen, United Kingdom on Sep. 12, 2002, bearing the Accession No. NCPAT17699 (NCIMB 41148) and CIMAP, Lucknow, India, bearing the Accession No. CIMAP/IPMC 99/T-7 (CIMAP 0518).
The invention is described in detail with reference to the following examples which are provided for illustration only and should not be considered as limitations on the inventive concept.